The current 21-day, partial government shutdown is on its way to making history as the longest in U.S. history.

It may also be the first time a company has used the Donner Party—a group of 19th century pioneers who resorted to cannibalism on the Oregon trail—to condemn government actions.

"No party hates the outdoors except maybe the Donner Party," Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle told the news site Axios, in reference to the company's new ad that calls for national parks to be reopened.

The Portland-based company recently took out a full-page spread in the Washington Post to broadcast the message: "Make America's Parks Open Again."

"Walls shouldn't block access to parks," the ad reads, "and federal workers shouldn't be left in the cold. Work together to open our parks."

(Columbia Sportswear)

Boyle tells Axios that the company relies on "the beauty of America, the West, the outdoors to market our products."

"When that's under stress," he says, "we feel like we have to challenge that."

"My family fled Nazi Germany and my mother and grandparents settled safely in Portland, Oregon," Boyle wrote in the email, "We are here because the United States was open and tolerant enough to let us in."